Grand Portage National Monument [MN]

Description

For over 400 years Ojibwe families of Grand Portage have tapped maples every spring on a ridge located just off Lake Superior. During the summer, Ojibwe fishermen harvest in the same areas their forefathers have. Before the United States and Canada existed, the trading of furs, ideas, and genes between the Ojibwe and French and English fur traders flourished. From 1778 until 1802, welcomed by the Grand Portage Ojibwe, the North West Company located their headquarters and western supply depot here for business and a summer rendezvous. Today, Grand Portage National Monument and Indian Reservation form a bridge between people, time and culture.

The site offers short films; tours; exhibits; educational programs; demonstrations; and educational and recreational events, including living history events.

Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site [MN]

Description

The Lower Sioux Agency, founded in 1853, served as the administrative center of the Dakota reservation. The site presents Dakota life and culture prior to European contact, during the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, and during the reservation period. Gardens and farming plots offer comparison of traditional and reservation farming techniques.

The site offers exhibits, a film, period gardens, period crops, children's programs, guided tours, trails, and interpretive signs. Reservations are required for field trips.

Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner State Monument [NM]

Description

Fort Sumner was the center of a million-acre reservation known as the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation. The story of how the U.S. Army forcibly moved the Navajo and Mescalero Apache people from their traditional homelands to the land surrounding this lonely outpost is pivotal to the history of the American West. During this tragic period of U.S. history, the Navajo and Mescalero Apache Indians were starved into submission and then forced to march hundreds of miles to the Bosque Redondo Reservation. The Navajo call this journey the Long Walk. Nearly one-third of the captives died during incarceration. Today a unique new museum designed by Navajo architect David Sloan and an interpretive trail provide information about the tragic history of Fort Sumner and Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation.

The site offers exhibits, tours, and educational programs.

Fort Totten State Historic Site [ND]

Description

This site preserves a military post built in 1867 and used continuously as a military reservation until 1890 when it became a boarding school for Indian children. The brick buildings, which replaced an earlier log fort, appear much as they did when built of locally made brick in 1868. Original buildings are now being used to house museum exhibits. Fort Totten served American Indian policy from 1867 to 1959. Constructed as a military post, it became an Indian boarding school, Indian health care facility, and a reservation school.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Holland Land Office Museum [NY]

Description

The Holland Land Office Museum presents the history of Genesee County, New York. Topics covered include the Tonawanda Indian Reservation, the Seneca people, military history, and Victorian life. The collection contains approximately 16,000 artifacts—2,000 of which are available for viewing at a given time. The collection is supplemented by a series of temporary exhibits.

The museum offers exhibits, customizable tours, and more than 15 summer education programs. Reservations are required for tours.

Fort Tejon State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Fort Tejon is located in the Grapevine Canyon, the main route between California's great central valley and Southern California. The fort was established to protect and control the Indians who were living on the Sebastian Indian Reservation, and to protect both the Indians and white settlers from raids by the Paiutes, Chemeheui, Mojave, and other Indian groups of the desert regions to the southeast. Fort Tejon was first garrisoned by the United States Army on August 10, 1854 and was abandoned ten years later on September 11, 1864. There are restored adobes from the original fort, and the park's museum features exhibits on army life and local history.

The park offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, living history events, and other recreational and educational events.

The Indian Wars

Description

This iCue Mini-Documentary describes how the Native Americans fought back throughout the 19th century, as the U.S. Army tried to contain them on smaller and smaller parcels of land.

This feature is no longer available.

Andrew Jackson's Indian Policy

Description

This iCue Mini-Documentary describes Andrew Jackson's harsh attitudes against Native Americans, which led to the Indian Removal Act, forcing five eastern Indian tribes onto reservations in Oklahoma. Thousands of Indians died during the journey, which became known as "The Trail of Tears."

This feature is no longer available.